While checking on and looking for crow nests around Ithaca, mostly to NE side and Cayuga Heights, I am encountering numerous vultures swooping low through neighborhoods, just sailing around looking for your backyard carrion, I suppose. But my impression is that there are more than in years past, and closer, lower and more “residential”.
In my view, the crows have had a lot of reason to attack as the vultures have come within 20-30 meters of nest sites, looking pretty predatory. Yesterday, I watched an acrobatic event between crows and a low swooping couple of vultures over Pleasant Grove Road near Forest Home and Hasbrouck community buildings yesterday, with the vultures having to dodge and sail pretty fast, after they dropped in over a nest. Am I just not remembering past years, or are there more vultures close at hand over residential and campus Ithaca? Anne -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
